Pellet brands

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 6sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 8 months ago by Nonniestyle.

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- 08/23/2013 at 1:37 AM
  mia
  Participant
  617 posts
  There were some older threads ranking pellet brands. Was wondering if there’s an updated one.
  
  Don’t need that many different ones but past few weeks, I went to several stores and they all ran out of Oxbow. I typically get the Essentials and they even ran out of the other types of Oxbow pellets. I had looked at one of the old threads and recorded a couple down but could only find one in store… which was out too!! I tried to read the ingrediants at the store but almost all the others had alfalfa near the top?! We literally ended up with zero pellets in the house and I kept running from store to store frantically looking and at least one of my buns NEEDS pellets. So… looking for alternatives just in case it happens again.
- 08/23/2013 at 5:06 AM
  MoveDiagonally
  Participant
  2361 posts
  The biggest issue with alfalfa is protein, calcium, and fat. Some foods that contain it are still within the recommended nutritional analysis. I would read the ingredients to make sure there’s nothing harmful and then focus on analysis.
  
  Recommended Nutritional Value (Adult Rabbits)
  
  Fiber 18% minimum (20 -25% best)
  
  Fat 1 – 2% max
  
  Protein 12 – 14% max (long-haired breeds may need higher)
  
  Calcium 1% max
  
  (Source: BinkyBunny.com Diet Info Page)
  
  The brands that I’ve looked into that fall within this are:
  
  – Oxbow Adult Rabbit
  
  – Oxbow Organic Rabbit BeneTera
  
  – Kaytee Timothy Complete
  
  – Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Rabbit (Adult)
  
  – Zupreem Nature’s Promise
  
  – Zupreem Timothy Naturals
  
  – Sweet Meadow Timothy Pellets
  
  Brands that fall a little outside what’s recommended but are still good:
  
  – Oxbow Natural Science Adult, 1% more fat than the rec
  
  – American Pet Diner Timmy Rabbit, .5% more protein than the rec
  
  Based on analysis these aren’t “that bad” there’s just a lot of better stuff out there (a lot of worse stuff too):
  
  – LM Animal Farms Rabbit Food, 1% more fat, no listed max calcium.
  
  – Purina Rabbit Chow Fiber3, 1% more protein and .3% more max calcium.
  
  I did these a couple months ago and I doubt much has changed but I would still double check anything you buy. I can’t remember if I read the ingredients very thouroughly when I compiled these (I was focusing on analysis). Anyway… I hope this helps at least somewhat. I have so many spreadsheets about rabbit diet, lol. Just a weird hobby of mine.
- 08/23/2013 at 2:00 PM
  mia
  Participant
  617 posts
  Thank you so much; this is really helpful. I’m an engineer and love numbers and spreadsheets =).
  
  If the nutritional value falls in place, would it be ok to get chinchilla or guinea pig pellets? Many of the ingredients are the same. Zupreem was the other one I tried looking for but all the rabbit stuff was gone but they had other pets’ pellets available.
- 08/23/2013 at 2:05 PM
  Sarita
  Participant
  18851 posts
  Not sure about chinchilla diet but they add extra vitamin c to the guinea pig pellets.
- 08/23/2013 at 4:00 PM
  Tessie
  Participant
  1231 posts
  Can the buns have too much fibre? I’m looking at one that claims to have 30% …
- 08/25/2013 at 10:29 AM
  MoveDiagonally
  Participant
  2361 posts
  miaeih – As Sarita said, Guinea Pig food is not good for bunnies because of the Vitamin C. I have no idea about Chinchilla food. I’m not sure if chinchilla’s have special dietary needs that would be included in their food like piggies do. You could email the manufacturer and ask what the differences are but I generally would try to stick to food made for bunnies.
  
  Tessie – 30% for fiber is fine.
- 08/26/2013 at 1:55 PM
  Nonniestyle
  Participant
  6 posts
  This helps a ton! I’ll be moving back stateside in the spring and what was a good brand to get Romi
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